Comments on: Must-click link: Will Leitch on Bud Selig

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:51:58 +0000

The article is a bit selective, there have been multiple owners that were too highly leveraged when allowed to purchase teams (the McCourts, the Wilpons, and Hicks were all highly leveraged from the beginning and all managed to screw up highly profitable teams).
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In addition, the fans of the Oakland A’s might take exception to comparison of Selig taking control of teams while the NFL lets the Bills “twist in the wind” (the Bills make a profit every year)…for that matter, Marlins fans might have some complaints as well…as Selig allowed a guy that ran one team into the ground (Expos) to buy/trade for another one.
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I agree that Selig has been effective and that his successes have been under-reported/recognized. But he has made a number of mistakes (especially regarding owner selection) more than once, and baseball has plenty of franchises that “twist in the wind” while no one does anything about years of losing records with no end in sight.

By: Detroit Michael

Detroit Michael — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:12:22 +0000

“feeling” not “following” — I can use a edit function!

By: Detroit Michael

Detroit Michael — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:10:54 +0000

I must be following contrarian today.

When you wrote, he hasn’t made the same mistake twice, you must not be counting his participation as an owner in collusion over multiple years, nor his repeated failure to acknowledge that part of baseball’s history while positioning himself as a moral arbiter over other matters. You must also be willing to overlook the multiple times he lied (in my opinion — at least unreasonably misrepresented baseball’s financial fortunes) under oath at Congressional hearings but was fortunate enough to not be prosecuted for it.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t be nearly as harsh about the 1994-95 work stoppage. The nature of collective bargaining is that it sometimes is difficult to assess blame with the two sides don’t reach agreement. Furthermore, 16 years of labor peach since then more than offsets Selig’s role in 1994-95 in my opinion. I don’t think it’s a matter of needing “ultimate absolution” but rather it’s just business.